St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge

I only took two pictures of butterflies (Monarchs) today and this one turned out to be tagged. I can’t read the tag, so I can’t report it. I didn’t notice the tag until I loaded the pictures on my computer.

By Linda November 27, 2018

We arrived outside the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge on Sunday afternoon. We set up camp and left to visit the refuge and promptly got lost. There aren’t that many roads around here to get lost. I forgot the maps and I tried to rely on my memory and signs. Our GPS was useless. I used the phone for navigation and that’s how we wound up on dirt roads. The GPS showed us driving through the woods. We wound up at Wekulla Beach at St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge. It was fine, but we wanted to be at the lighthouse. We enjoyed the tour anyway.

Snipe

We visited the Lighthouse area of the refuge on Monday morning. It was overcast and showed signs of thunderstorms coming our way. We were able to spend several hours before we decided to get out before the rain started. As soon as we got back to the RV and got inside, the rain started.

Semipalmated Plover

The rain brought very cold weather. We woke up to temperatures in the 30’s. That’s very cold for Florida. We braved the low temperatures to go back and visit the refuge today before sunrise. While Regis kept the car running with the heater on, I got out and looked for birds in the scope. When I got too cold, I jumped back in the car. The thing I needed the most today was a pair of gloves. I wish I had brought my winter coat.

Scaups

We came back for lunch to warm up and went back out this afternoon. We thought the alligators would be too cold to come out, but we saw several lying in the sun trying to warm up. There are some big ones out there.

Alligator and St. Marks NWRAlligator and St. Marks NWR. This alligator looks different than most other alligators I’ve seen. Regis feels the same.

We never went kayaking. I don’t know why we bother to bring the kayaks. Monday it rained and today was so cold there was no way I could kayak without the right clothing. We are headed back home tomorrow.